Digital onboarding

White Paper
Customer digital onboarding

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Page 2 | Customer digital onboarding
Contents
Introduction 3
Setting the scene 4
Customer expectations 7
Barriers to great experiences 17
Exploring innovations 23
Experience design 35
Delivery execution 55
Continuous improvement 61
About us 73

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Customer digital onboarding | Page 3
Introduction
Getting started on your digital transformation
journey can be a challenge. At Experian,
we want to help you get on your way -
from understanding some of the emerging
opportunities, technologies and best practice, to
being aware of some of the recurring pitfalls you
may come across. We have created this guide
based upon our teams’ extensive knowledge
and experience of digital onboarding. It brings
together the key areas you and your organisation
should be informed about, to make your delivery
a success.

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Setting the scene
Experian recently commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a study with 380 C-level and
functional leaders across Europe, the Middle East and Africa at traditional bricks-and-mortar
organisations. The resulting report (Winning in the customer era)1
focuses on the changing
digital world, where customers are more powerful than ever before, and expectations are higher,
influencing businesses to reconsider their business models. Nearly half of C-level respondents
are worried about external competition, with 73% believing that traditional business models will
disappear in the next five years due to digital transformation.
To respond to the challenge of adapting to the era of
the customer, organisations must be able to do three
things: deliver a 360º view of the customer across the
lifecycle, fight fraud without compromising the customer
experience, and break traditional business constraints to
serve today’s non-traditional customer.
C-level executives unanimously recognise customer
insight as critical to business success. 81% of
respondents consider improved customer insight to be
their top business priority over the next 12 months.
What is likely to be your top business
priority over the next year?
Gain better insights on our customers 81%
Growth through new customer acquisition 78%
Improve cost efficiency 76%
Improve data/information security across the
organisation
74%
Enhanced analytics capabilities 73%
Base: 132 C-level professionals - head of digital or customer experience or VP
or above in marketing, finance, IT/operations and CROs in Europe, the Middle
East, and Africa25
Executive decision makers understand that trying to
apply processes they use in offline channels to digital
creates friction in the customer journey, increases costs,
and leads to missed opportunities. 72% of executive
respondents stated that a top business priority is to
better integrate physical and digital channels.
The study reveals that the majority of executive
respondents believe their organisations are failing to
deliver on customer experience, in particular on digital
channels. While only 39% of respondents claim they
provide best in class experiences. More worryingly,
70% admitted that they are ineffective at delivering
an optimised digital customer experience across all
touchpoints of the customer lifecycle.
A continued failure to address digital customer
experience is directly affecting their business, with
respondents reporting an increase in cost to serve a
customer (48%) and increased customer churn (35%) over
the past 12 months.
While the digital gap is clearly visible with executives, the
gap at the business level is growing. Current approaches
continue to fall short of meeting rising customer
expectations and there is increasing pressure from more
agile, digital savvy competitors.
Over three-quarters (78%) of organisations admit that
they are currently unable to deliver an optimised digital
experience for customers. Only 25% of organisations are
leveraging automation to streamline business processes
to reduce response times and relieve unnecessary
burden on the customer. Combined with this, only 26%
claim they have a unified view of their customer across all
channels, severely hampering their ability to proactively
maximise customer value and growth at every touchpoint
across the customer lifecycle journey.
1
Experian. (2016). Winning in the Customer Era. [online] Available at: http://www.
experian.ae/en/winning-in-the-customer-era/index.html
25
Base: 132 C-level professionals - head of digital or customer experience
or VP or above in marketing, finance, IT/operations and CROs in Europe, the
Middle East, and Africa. Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester
Consulting on behalf of Experian, August 2016

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Only 23% of organisations confidently claimed they
provide a friction-free, seamless experience for new
customers. As a result, 37% of organisations reported an
increase in client onboarding times, while a further 26%
reported higher levels of customers abandoning their
journeys before purchase.
We asked businesses to indicate the extent to which
the following statements describe your organisation's
current approach to digital customer experiences
(Showing respondents who selected 'describes our
approach exactly' only)
Our business fully understands the impacts of digital
experience
33%
We have a clear strategy and sufficient executive
support for mature adoption of digital experience
26%
We support a unified view of the customer that
we seek to optimise for omnichannel customer
engagement
26%
We have automated processes to ensure a more
timely and consistent response to customers across
all channels
25%
We have an integrated client strategy between digital
and traditional channels
24%
Base: 248 functional heads in fraud, customer marketing, compliance,
risk, collections, IT, credit, analytics, digital analytics, and digital customer
experience in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.25
Digital onboarding is identified as the
biggest area of weakness and missed
opportunity.

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Digital onboarding
Customer onboarding has changed rapidly in recent years. In some areas, providers are
creating simple, low cost, intuitive digital experiences that have fuelled the growth of their
business and brands.
These new services have created a gap between
customer expectations and the reality of what most
organisations offer. Digital onboarding processes fail
for most customers who do not meet the perfect profile
criteria to complete the process in the digital channel.
This generates customer friction and significant drop out.
Dealing with onboarding drop out increases the cost per
acquisition for providers, resulting in a £100-£500 cost
per client acquisition range. It is an unsustainable model,
resulting in multi-year payback before reaching the point
of breaking even.
Having experienced this across geographies and
sectors over recent years, we are seeing a consistent
challenge presenting itself, varying only in jurisdictional
requirements or in different customer behaviours,
depending on the type of product or service selected.
Improving onboarding efficiency and cost to serve should
be a core focus for a business’s digital transformation
ambitions, stripping out waste and improving customer
experience.
The digital marketplace represented $2 trillion dollars
in 2016 and is expected to grow by over $1 trillion by
2020. However, the less agile and cost-constrained
organisations are likely to find the next 5 years very
challenging. We anticipate a convergence of application
program interface (API) architectures with mobile
technology, digital identity and big data. This will facilitate
significant and ongoing opportunities to create excellent
onboarding experiences for customers. Whether its
buying or leasing a house or a car, setting up a mobile
phone contract, changing utility provider, opening a
brokerage, credit card or a bank account, for example, it
needs to be a quick, personalised and easy experience.2
This paper navigates through the potential challenges in
onboarding customers that global businesses face as they
evolve to a digital-focused model. We guide you through
the opportunities and best practice approach whilst
alerting you to some of the pitfalls to avoid, so that you
can ensure a successful digital onboarding process for
your customers.
Significant opportunity remains for those
providers who can serve their customers
well, utilising new technologies across all
channels.
2
Industrial Distribution. (2016). Report: E-Commerce To Approach $2 Trillion This
Year; Top $4 Trillion In 2020. [online] Available at: http://www.inddist.com/data-
focus/2016/08/report-e-commerce-approach-2-trillion-year-top-4-trillion-2020.

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Customer expectations

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Customers’ changing expectations
Customer expectations and behaviours are constantly evolving and mobile technology has become
more important in customers’ lives than ever before. In 2015, mobile commerce grew by 38% and
37% of all website visits come from mobile devices.
People will upgrade their mobile technology at least every
two years. 2.6 billion Smartphone users receive software
upgrades, or updates, every 6-8 weeks. There are 10
million-plus apps on mobile devices, which are regularly
updated to optimise their performance, add new features
and improve the end user experience. Meanwhile, brands
spent $100 billion in 2016 on advertising for mobile
devices, surpassing desktop advertising for the first time.3
By 2020 it is predicted that digital brand touch point
interactions could grow by between 1-10,000 times
current volumes.4
Most companies, however, are not
delivering this level of improvement to their customers
through the various existing touch points with their brand,
they risk losing business over the medium term if they
cannot keep up with the minimum expectation customers
have. Whilst many companies have invested heavily in
product development ($680 billion globally in 2015) to
ensure their solutions meet customers’ needs, wants
and problems, they have failed to evolve their processes
(customer journeys) at a fast enough pace.5
We currently live in the no-mans-land between the
digital and physical modes of transacting business.
We have technologically advanced vehicles, which we
still need to buy via a dealership. On the other hand,
the latest smartphone handset requires us to visit the
store to purchase and set up, instead of doing so via the
devices. Alternatively, online applications for financial
services which still require us to visit a store to provide
‘further information’, or send it in the post to complete the
agreement.
Some of the big brand online retailers have redefined
the way we purchase products. Books, music, and
media are available almost instantaneously and physical
goods can arrive to the customer in as little as 1 hour.
What’s more, online retailers are gleaning information
from every purchase a customer makes to create an
accurate profile, which they can use to make personalised
recommendations. The algorithms and data these
companies use means they can know their customers'
develop relationships, and build loyalty. It is the modern-
day equivalent of the local bank manager, only now
companies are no longer confined to geographical
limitations. They can gather the same information and
offer the same level of personalised service, whether
that customer is in China, India or Australia. What is
important to understand in this changing world is that
the customer’s needs, wants or problems have not
fundamentally changed; what has changed is the access
to information to inform the purchase decision and
the expectation that we can get what we want in our
immediate context, and in our moments of need.
In the past, customers lacked information about products
and their availability, typically searching through
newspapers, magazines, catalogues and brochures. At
the store there was no price transparency, it was a local
marketplace, with low detail marketing. Now there is
massive price transparency, national or international
marketplaces, and huge amounts of information available.
The transformation means the customer can now search
products to find the retailer. It is a buyer’s marketplace.
3
Emarketer.com. (2016). Mobile Ad Spend to Top $100 Billion Worldwide in 2016,
51% of Digital Market - eMarketer. [online] Available at: https://www.emarketer.
com/Article/Mobile-Ad-Spend-Top-100-Billion-Worldwide-2016-51-of-Digital-
Market/1012299
4
www.idc.com. (2016). IDC Predicts the Emergence of. [online] Available at:
https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS40552015
5
Strategyand.pwc.com. (2016). The 2015 Global Innovation 1000: Innovation’s new
world order (Study report). [online] Available at: http://www.strategyand.pwc.
com/reports/2015-global-innovation-1000-media-report
6
Think with Google. (2016). Holiday Is (Almost) Here: 5 Shopping Trends
Marketers Should Watch in 2014. [online] Available at: https://www.
thinkwithgoogle.com/articles/five-holiday-shopping-trends-marketers-should-
watch.html
7
Increase. (2016). Personalisation increases sales by 19% - Increase. [online]
Available at: http://www.marketingincrease.com/personalisation-increases-
sales-19/

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The evolution of the purchase journey
Technology is changing the way customers approach the purchase of goods and services.
In 2015, Google reported that more searches are conducted via mobile than desktop, with
48% starting on a search engine.
The decision-making process has changed for customers,
in much the same way as it has for many companies,
by leveraging the greater volume of available data to
make better decisions. With the amount of information
available digitally, 80%+ of customers are now spending
considerable time (12-15 hours before big purchases)
and effort in researching and evaluating the products
and services they want - from watching online videos
and utilising comparison sites, to reading user ratings on
social media.6
Significant opportunity exists to make this process
quicker and easier for customers to complete.
Developments in artificial intelligence (AI) over the next 3
to 5 years will mean customers will no longer personally
need to conduct their own time-consuming research. AI
will provide bespoke recommendations on why a product
or service best fits the customer, validated with evidence
from research data, in combination with the customer’s
personal information, including age and lifestyle, as well
as purchase history.
Unaware Awareness
Information
Search
Evaluation Commitment Support
Use
Evaluation
Post-purchase
Tell others
Recommend
Review
Decision
Purchase
Inquiry
Sign-up
Onboard
Schedule
Specifications
Comparisons
Alternatives
Pro vs con
Quality
Reputation
Solutions
Explanation
Options
Service
Provider
Supplier
Need
Want
Problem
Issue
Improve
Opportunity
Education
Marketing
Advertising
Social
Path to purchase
Artificial Intelligence capabilities will develop out of
search and evaluation to support the full journey
Customers will soon be able to search by voice, gesture
and image, and participate in other people’s purchases via
social media and augmented reality, as if on a shopping
trip together.
Whilst the diagram highlights some of the key
considerations within the process of a purchase decision,
decision criteria also extends into other areas where
many businesses fall short, by not considering the social
and emotional engagement achieved at this stage of a
customer journey. If you engage with the brand via a
digital channel your expectation is that, you still receive a
personalised experience. Getting a standard response to
an online enquiry for more information could be the end
of the interaction, versus the opportunity to delight the
customer and reinforce that they are in control, leading
them to a purchase decision.
Personalisation was shown to boost sales by up to
19% in the digital retail sector.7
This has led to a more
informed and decisive buyer, which means that if a
customer browses a product or service online before
entering a store, they are more likely to make a purchase
compared to simply walking into the store without any
previous online contact. If businesses do not have that
understanding and are still operating an old sales model,
for example expecting the customer to research products
in-store, then the sale could be lost by not engaging
the customer appropriately, which increasingly means
digitally.

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Always on, always available
The customer’s purchase journey is changing dramatically. Campaign marketing days are coming
to an end, opening the door for highly targeted and personalised cross-channel communications,
delivered seamlessly at multiple stages of the customer journey.
These evolving processes, across both physical and
virtual environments, leverage big data, advances in
technology and the rapid evolution in service design
to create personalised offers and experiences for
customers. Companies can no longer wait to engage
the client when they arrive in their store or land on
their website. Customers must be engaged at every
stage of the buying journey because decisions are made
throughout the customer’s purchase journey, and they can
be made fast.
Digital channels sit at the heart of this transformation. It
is no longer about the cheapest channel, but a strategy
that meets the minimum standard the customer expects.
The big challenge is that the speed of change is faster
than companies can currently react to. Customers now
expect simplicity, immediacy and a great experience from
every interaction they have. Organisations that get this
right are being significantly rewarded with rapid growth
and increased market valuation.
As businesses embark on the task of transforming
customer journeys to digital-based capability. The danger
is that it is done at the expense of other channels. Instead,
businesses should adopt a holistic, ‘omni-channel’
approach.
Companies with omni-channel customer engagement
strategies retain an average 89% of their customers,
compared to 33% for companies with weak omni-channel
customer engagement.8
In addition, customers are
expected to have a 30% higher lifetime value.
The importance of an omni-channel approach is
highlighted by the fact that 72% of customers still
consider the in-store experience as the most important
channel for making a purchase.
Therefore, it is important that organisations do not lose
sight of their physical presence and ensure the same
level of consistent service is offered in every channel they
operate. To do this, employees need to be empowered
to deliver this, supported by fast and easy solutions that
enable the focus to remain on the customer, rather than
on the technology.
Many companies talk a lot about digital transformation
but what the vast majority are actually doing is
digitisation of existing legacy services, taking their
existing products, processes and propositions and
creating a digital version of them without thinking through
the new customer context. Digital transformation is
about radically changing your business to best serve the
changing needs of the customer in the new digital world.
8
Demery, P. (2016). Why an Omni channel strategy matters. [online]
Internetretailer.com. Available at: https://www.internetretailer.com/2013/12/31/
why-omnichannel-strategy-matters

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Watching TV Using device
47%
19%
67%
55%
28%
52%
16% 14%
Durations
Laptops and PC’s are used throughout the purchase
journey and tend to be for longer sessions >30mins
Smartphones, apps and smaller devices also used
throughout the purchase journey, but for shorter more
focussed objectives <20 mins > 30mins < 20mins
Laptop
Desktop
Tablet (web)
Smartphone (web)
Key:
Researching on different devices
How each device is used
Smartphones and tablets lend themselves to multi
screening with people researching whilst also watching TV.
Conversely, desktop and PC usage tends to command all
the users attention

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The rise of millennials
Demographic change might be one of the most compelling ways to answer the ‘why change’
question. Millennials – those born between the early 1980s and the early 2000s – are forecast to
account for 30% of all global spend by 2020. For many, the term ‘millennial’ evokes the image of
an apathetic teenager playing video games and texting their friend on the other side of the room.
Nevertheless, with the leading edge of Millennials entering their early 30s, this incredibly diverse and
well-connected generation is growing up and businesses should take note.
Millennials are sometimes referred to, as the ‘selfie
generation’, but a better name would be the ‘smartphone
generation’ because this generation is leading the way on
smartphone adoption and incorporating the technology
into their daily lives.
Millennials are true digital natives, having grown up in the
age of the Internet and the mobile phone. Such technology
is fully rooted in daily life, so it is important to keep this
in mind when attempting to reach Millennials. Do not
overhype something that a Gen X or boomer marketer
thinks is “revolutionary” or “exciting” because Millennials
will not be nearly as impressed.
‘Always-on Millennials’ are so connected that half say
that they need constant internet access even on-the-go
(compared with 38% of all adults). Smartphones are a
natural solution to this need and 43% of Millennials say
that they now access the internet more through their
phone than through a computer - compared with just 20%
of adults aged 35 and older.
During a typical day, usage among Millennials peaks
between 4:00 and 6:00 PM when 69% of smartphone
owners are using their phones. Usage among those
aged 35 and older also peaks at this time, with 66% of
smartphone owners overall using their devices to access
the internet.
The increased use of smartphones around the clock
by Millennials gives marketers the ability to reach this
generation virtually anytime and anywhere. Marketers
putting any efforts into captivating Millennials need to
adopt a mobile-first approach for their Millennial-focused
campaigns. Research also shows that Millennials still
want human interaction – they just want them mediated
through digital.
During a typical week, Millennials spend 67 hours using
media, which works out to approximately 9.5 hours a day -
more than some people sleep. This generation is also the
first to devote the majority of their media time to digital
devices, including computers, tablets, game consoles,
mobile phones, e-readers and MP3 players. Millennials
spend 35 hours a week with digital media and only 32
hours with traditional media, which includes television,
magazines, newspapers and radio.
Of the individual devices measured, television still
accounts for the largest share of total time spent (42%)
among adults of all ages. It also has the largest reach
with 97% of all adults watching at least some TV each
week. Even among Millennials – the generation that
spends the least amount of time watching TV – television
accounts for more than a third (37%) of their total weekly
media time, or about 25 hours. Therefore do not discount
the power of television for reaching this generation. If
anything, their tendency to multi-task on other connected
devices while watching TV means there is potential to
make television content and advertising more interactive
and actionable.
Ultimately, Millennials have expectations of organisations
that are not currently being met by traditional business.
Worse, because many of their views are driven by trends
such as technology and globalisation, these attitudes are
also starting to be evident in other generations.
With Millennials predicted to account for one third of all
spending by 2020, winning the loyalty of them now is
crucial to future success. Those that do not embark on
bold, decisive transformation today risk sleepwalking into
irrelevance.

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80%
Millennial reaching for
phone is first thing the do
when they wake
2.5 hours
Per day
spent on mobile
87%
Millennial say smart phone
never leaves their side
60%
Millennials believe
everything will be done by
mobile within 5 years
77%
People watch TV
with second device
3 in 4
Consumers have recently
used Facebook
A Millennial:

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The omni-channel approach
Customers are becoming more comfortable interacting with companies across a growing number
of channels; as a result, they are demanding a seamless and consistent approach across each
and every channel, when it comes to customer service. 90% of customers say they have had poor
experiences seeking customer support on mobile devices. In particular, there is a strong attachment
to traditional face-to-face interactions. Despite the growth of online and mobile, the vast majority
(86% of customers) still want to be able to speak to someone face-to-face from time to time.
Stores still play a significant role in new acquisition
activity, accounting for over 60% of sales for brands who
have both a physical and digital presence. A core focus for
future acquisition ambitions is how to efficiently transition
onboarding from other channels to digital onboarding
from other channels to digital and doing so without
affecting volume and quality, and at the same time
optimising the customer experience. This is a challenge
for many companies that do not have experience in digital
transformation.
Customers expectations from channels:
As organisations convert to a digital customer journey, it
is revealing significant variance in the challenges faced
by different sectors. Across the banking industry, for
example, the conversion rate for in-branch sales is 85%,
compared to a current dropout rate of 85% for digital
channels. Bridging this gap is a huge challenge, and there
are many reasons for it, but the primary focus should be
on understanding the customer.
Digital
Easy to use online and mobile
Let me do everything instantly
Web and apps clear and
easy to navigate
Offer 24/7 realtime access
Telephony
Knowledgeable staff
available 24/7
Offer call back at times that suit
Free calls to Customer Services
In country call centres
In store
Conveniently located stores
Staff readily available
Open at convenient times
Enough staff to avoid waiting

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Communication
• Contact me on my terms, when relevant
• Stop asking me for information you should know
already / portability of my data
• Networked with companies, institutions and each
other through the internet and social media
Choice
• Give me options and I’ll decide
• Don’t try to lock me into your brand, I want
flexibility
Control
• Comforted by being in control but needs to accept
responsibility and more away from claim culture
• Expects instantaneous gratification / fast
response
• Focussed on self
Convenience
• Best channel to service specific need, will use all
• Service is king
• Always on / mobile connected
Cost
• Effort to get / best use of my energy
• Not price driven
• Constrained by existing debt (e.g. student loans)
Customers told us they want:

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What do customers expect in an onboarding journey?
Customers believe there is a lack of transparency in many onboarding processes; they do not
understand why organisations need to ask for all the information they do and do not understand
what is done with that information once it is gathered. Customers also find it frustrating that they
only receive a yes or a no and not a why, when applying for credit products.
When testing onboarding prototype solutions, customers
displayed a level of anxiety in completing some journeys,
due to concerns that they may be unsuccessful in meeting
the process criteria. However, they also said that they
would prefer to use digital, rather than face-to-face,
because they worried about hard selling, especially for
big-ticket items. However, there are persistent problems
with digital. Customers are fed up with challenging online
processes and form filling (40% of customers). They also
have an appreciation that completing these processes
should be lower cost for providers, which they expect to
be passed to them via differential pricing/added value for
the digital customer (22% of customers). The other area of
concern related to new technology; customers considered
some innovations, such as eye scanning and implants, too
intrusive.
• Safe and secure from a trusted brand -
concerned about online fraud
• Convenience - time poor
• Intuitive and helpful, simple, clear and easy with
no terminology
• No signatures or paperwork should be required
• Ability to easily cancel
• Receipts and confirmations for completing
stages
• Rewards for loyalty, personalised deals and
incentives
• Minimise data entry and includes the ability to
add their partner (joint)
• All products available in all channels
• Expect to be known by companies they already
do business with pre-filling data
• Expect a mobile option alongside other
channels
• Emotional engagement / connection /
personalised experience
• Speed to make a decision and complete
fulfilment is more important than terms.
Customers may also be willing for providers of
certain products to access additional data to
facilitate a faster experience
What customers told us:

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Barriers to great experiences

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Barriers to great digital onboarding
Many onboarding systems are broken. They take too long for the customer to complete and fulfilment
then can take weeks or months, for larger purchases such as buying a car. This challenge will likely
see organisations reduce, remove or standardise the long list of options they currently provide on
products, and simplify their offerings as a result.
The main problem with the design of digital onboarding
processes is that the exceptions are triggered for more
users than not (85%). This leaves customers disillusioned
with the process, and providers struggling with high-
cost manual interventions to try to save the sale. The
other big obstacle in fixing the onboarding journey is
that, traditionally, businesses have built ultra-bespoke
linear solutions in this area, believing that their problem
is unique to them. These high-cost systems are based
on legacy designs. On average, large IT projects ($15m+)
run 45% over budget and 7% over time, while delivering
56% less value than predicted, according to an Oxford
University study. 17% of IT projects go so badly that they
threaten the very existence of the business, running over
by 200% - 400% of budget.9
Very few are brave enough to properly tackle these
challenges again, resulting in digitised face-to-face paper
processes with little to no real-time execution.
The future is about building a complete digital
infrastructure, which can create simple, individual digital
journeys for onboarding, which gathers the appropriate
information with the least friction possible.
Disruptors delight their customers with
simple intuitive experiences
• Failure to identify the customer
• Process too long, boring and confusing
• Too much keying of information
• Failure to pass other criteria
• Availability - not 24/7 or real-time
• No mobile optimised version
• Legal terms and conditions, regulatory
requirements and barriers
• Inability to provide child, joint and business
onboarding options
• Physical signature requirements
• No save and return if distractions occur
• Lack of control for the customer
• Too many hurdles
• No emotional attachment or engagement
9
Oxford University & McKinsey & Company. (2016). Delivering large-scale IT
projects on time, on budget, and on value. [online] Available at: http://www.
mckinsey.com/business-functions/digital-mckinsey/our-insights/delivering-
large-scale-it-projects-on-time-on-budget-and-on-value

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High cost interventions to improve sales conversion
Personal
details - name,
address, DOB
Basic customer digital onboarding journey
Qualifying details -
financial etc
Product option
selection
Checks -
credit, fraud, ID
Fulfilment
information
Address
issues
Fail criteria of what
they’ve requested
Give up -
bored and confused
Fail checks PURCHASE
up to 85%leakage rate
The ‘happy path’ legacy
Most digital onboarding processes are digitised versions of legacy face-to-face processes, which
have only one digital route to successful completion, the ‘happy path’.
The online journey is often long and tedious to experience,
taking longer than 20 minutes to complete. 35% of
customers give up, bored or confused with the process,
whilst others give up because joint applications are not
supported online.
In addition, the process itself can reject half of the users
because of not being able to identify whom they are,
causing further customer frustration. Financial and data
checks for Anti Money Laundering (AML), fraud and credit
can create multiple ‘unhappy paths’ for the customer. The
result is abandoned purchases, or often, purchasing via a
competitor who offers a slicker, timelier experience.
Studies show that 32% of customers start
to abandon slow processes between 1
and 5 seconds into them.10
10
Weatherhead, R. (2014). Say it quick, say it well – the attention span of a modern
internet consumer. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.
com/media-network/media-network-blog/2012/mar/19/attention-span-
internet-consumer

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We interviewed a series of customers to understand more about their perception of the experience
received by organisations:
Research underpinning the customer reality
Frustrating experiences
A third (34%) of customers who have had a frustrating
experience when engaging with an onboarding process,
say it was a result of lengthy process. 51% of customers
in total report this as one of the greatest frustrations with
digital onboarding. Other frustrations included: slowness
of processing (43%); being asked to provide additional
information / forms or documents (42%); poor customer
service / user interface (UI) (38%).
Drop out
46% said poor customer service or user interface was
the cause of them dropping out. Other areas which
caused dropout include: lengthy forms (40%); slowness in
processing the application or payment (34%); and being
asked to provide additional information/forms/documents
(22%).
One chance
41% said they would be less likely to interact with a
provider again if they failed to complete the onboarding
process digitally. Other reactions included a negative
opinion of the organisation (33%), of which 25%
shared their poor experience view with friends, family,
colleagues, and on social media.
Security and trust
Three quarters (75%) of those surveyed say that cyber
security is a high priority for them, rising to 80% of those
aged 55+. Only 2% said it was a low priority
46%
drop out
due to poor service or UI
51%
frustrated
due to lengthy processes

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Channel optimisation, in-store vs. digital
The 85% digital leakage needs to be put into context versus in-store sales conversion. At first glance,
these figures suggest that in-store is king whilst digital channels have a lot of catching up to do, but
the real answer is not quite as simple as that.
In-Store
Clearly, in-store has the advantage of people coming
in through the door, allowing for direct interaction and
engagement on a one-to-one basis. In turn, because
people in the store get personal attention and feel more
valued and understood, there is more likelihood of these
interactions converting to sales.
However, most businesses measure the sales process
from the point where this interaction switches from a
conversation to completing the process of onboarding.
Therefore, they could lose significant numbers of
prospects in the earlier stages of the path to purchase,
although this is not an area currently measured.
In addition, due to the increase in researching products
online, many customers arrive in-store ready to purchase.
In fact, the 15% are in most cases rejected by the
business during the onboarding process due to credit,
identity and fraud reasons. The main challenge with
in-store sales activity is that they have little to no insight
as to why the customer is there, where they have been
before, or what products or services they may be eligible
for to address their needs, wants or problems. Most
likely, the customer will still be taken through a painful
onboarding process, as they are too polite face-to-face to
get up and leave.
A significant opportunity exists for in-store sales
(particularly cross sales) if data and technology can be
better used to serve the customer at their time of need.
Stores typically still account for at least 60% of all new
sales and whilst the mix will change, it is likely to remain
the prominent sales channel for some years to come.
This provides greater emphasis towards establishing a
better understanding of the customers’ needs and the use
of evolving technology to enable staff to better serve the
customer.
Digital
Online journeys typically lose 35% of users because they
cannot identify the customer, and a further 35% give up
at some point in the journey because it is just too difficult.
A lack of clear analytics data in onboarding process
technology means few organisations know clearly, where
customers abandon their journey, making it difficult to
use established user experience (UX) principles to retain
customers in the journey. Approximately 15% fail the
process and 15% make it through to open an account.
The question for businesses is how much they are willing
to invest in streamlining the sales process, both in-store
and online, rather than which to focus on the most. The
key to this will always be demonstrating that a customer
is valued and understood.

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Initial
channel
270,000
Customer applies
80,000
190,000 lost
Applications completed
40,000
40,000 lost
185,000
155,000
30,000 lost
160,000
Customer referred to digital
45,000 38,250 lost
(85% leakage rate)
10,000
Customer referred to branch
85,000 12,750 lost
(15% leakage rate)
20,000 lost
85%leakage rate
15%leakage rate
45%leakage rate
Core focus
for brands to
address as
they move to
digital
Source: McKinsey
DIGITAL
IN STORE
TELEPHONY
Example of sales funnel drop out:

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Exploring innovation

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Rethinking disruption
Simplicity, immediacy and delivering a great customer experience sits at the heart of today’s
innovations; solving old needs, wants and problems with new thinking, enabled by advances in
technology and new design methodologies.
In a world of fast change, where new and constantly
evolving trends, businesses face a similar pressure to
be the next revolutionising brand. Already, the big brand
names we associate with doing things differently, have
positioned themselves as the innovators of their industry,
boosting their profile and sales in the process. How they
continue to innovate and evolve within their markets and
beyond will be interesting to observe.
All businesses can learn from these successes. What was
the seeds to their success? How did they cultivate and
nurture these? What was the technology and methods
behind it? Moreover, how did they execute their strategy?
There is a lot to be learnt from those companies who
have successfully transitioned to the digital age, but it
is important that businesses retain their own identity
and navigate their own path, rather than try to replicate
others’ successes. Businesses understand what is right
for their customers, their people and their purpose.
Digital transformation will always be more successful
when businesses have a clear path and play to their own
strengths.
There are five key challenges across sectors and
geographies:
• Execution risk – failing to deliver to scope and budget.
Innovation is non-existent until delivered.
• Dealing with regulation – including an organisation’s
ability to change processes and systems quickly.
• Cost reduction – through digitisation and improving
customer experiences.
• Improving sales conversion and cross sale.
• Investment in innovation – experimentation with
new methods and ways of working for design,
development and delivery.
Adopting new ways of working to deliver transformation
can be a high-risk strategy to embark on, without
experienced people to implement and deliver it.
Businesses cannot force innovation but they can create
an environment for success and nurture it. This can be
achieved by giving people the opportunity to explore and
the space to think, accepting that failure is a part of the
learning process.
Properly listening to customers and colleagues without
the need to respond can be immensely powerful in
generating ideas. Where do people have their great ideas?
How often is that allowed to happen in the business
environment? Does your culture build on ideas or diminish
them? It is a good idea for a business to ask colleagues
to help build out an idea, utilising their experience rather
than asking for views and opinions. It is time to stop
talking about innovation and start creating it.

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API’s
The API market is expected to grow 300%
by 2020.11
Application Program Interfaces (API’s) are a
hot topic at present. They have been talked
about for the past decade, or more, as the
answer to many legacy technology problems,
within a service orientated architecture
or cloud model. They are finally coming to
mainstream prominence and delivering both
as technology and as a business change
methodology.
Standardisation
Standardisation is important, as it is the
key to unlocking lower operational costs
and interoperability between functions and
organisations, moving away from bespoke
development.
Industry-specific standards are needed to
enable plug-and-play modularity across
systems, platforms and even organisations.
These types of standards exist across retail
and travel, with banks across Europe soon to
come under new PSD2 regulation.
Changing infrastructure
As we reimagine what a great onboarding experience may look like, how can we
leverage these capabilities to move beyond current constraints?
API
11
Forrester.com. (2016). Forrester Research API Management Solutions Forecast,
2015 To 2020 (US). [online] Available at: https://www.forrester.com/report/Forr
ester+Research+API+Management+Solutions+Forecast+2015+To+2020+US/-/E-
RES122361

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Cloud
By 2018 at least 50% of all IT spend will be
cloud based, reaching 60% by 2020.12
As cloud capabilities mature, they present
cost effective on-demand access to
configurable networks, servers, storage,
applications and services, which can be
rapidly provisioned and released. As an
outsource model structure, this is likely to
extend in the future to provide organisations
with other low value-add processes, to allow
them to focus on key areas of differentiation.
D2D & WiGig
Smartphones are about to become nodes in a
new network creating superfast connectivity.
This is known as device-to-device (D2D)
or proximity services. WiGig will replace
Wi-Fi and be the fastest way to transfer
information, linking seamlessly from cellular
and delivering up to five times faster than
Wi-Fi, via low-energy Bluetooth. There
is significant potential for this to provide
much richer content to customers during
onboarding processes.
12
www.idc.com. (2016). IDC Predicts the Emergence of. [online] Available at:

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Big data
By 2020, there will be 20 times more usable
data than today.
The world of data is moving as fast as data
becomes accessible. Big data and business
analytics revenue will grow from nearly $122
billion in 2015, to more than $187 billion in
2019 – a 50% increase. Data is behind the
surge and is of increasing importance to all
organisations, both business-to-consumer
and business-to-business. Data can be used
to provide personalised experiences and
enable organisations to better serve and
help their customers. In onboarding a new
customer, data will help pre-populate online
forms, helping provide better and faster
decisions.13
Artificial intelligence
By 2020, 50% of developer teams will embed
some level of cognitive services into solution
development, saving in excess of $60 billion.
Shared advances in natural language
processing and social awareness algorithms,
coupled with an unprecedented availability of
data, will soon allow smart digital assistants
and bots to help with a vast range of tasks
– from keeping track of your finances and
health to advising on suitable products and
services.14
Better data usage will be a game changer
13
www.idc.com. (2016). Worldwide Big Data and Business Analytics Revenues
Forecast to Reach $187 Billion in 2019, According to IDC. [online] Available at:
14
Idc.com. (2016). 3rd Platform - Cognitive Systems - IDC.com. [online] Available
at: http://www.idc.com/promo/thirdplatform/innovationaccelerators/cognitive

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Augmented reality
Augmented reality (AR) will allow customers
to experience a reality that is based upon
personal needs and desires.
AR will present through holograms, a
completely new way to engage, and will
expand the abilities of an organisation’s sales
and onboarding capabilities. The possibilities
of AR are endless when combined with
mobile technology data and connectivity. The
AR market could hit $120 billion by 2020.15
Blockchain
Blockchain is the ledger technology engine
developed to support Bitcoin.
In the context of onboarding, it could be used
to provide a transparent and trustworthy
platform for provenance, presenting historic
transactional data. An organisation could
publicly share a product’s origin and track
it throughout the chain of production, all the
while recording its statements publicly for
posterity. At the end of the chain, a customer
can check details of the product, its ongoing
suitability and review their path to purchase.
15
Fortune.com (2015) How augmented reality and virtual reality will
generate $150 billion in revenue by 2020 [online] Available at: http://fortune.
com/2015/04/25/augmented-reality-virtual-reality/

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Agile
For the past five years, the top three cited
benefits of agile include managing changing
priorities (87%), team productivity (85%), and
project visibility (84%). Agile is most widely
used in business terminology as a buzzword,
instead of the actual delivery methodology
developed around the agile manifesto.
Agile presents an opportunity for evolving
delivery methods away from waterfall, but
requires significant experience to deliver
successfully. Commonly used frameworks
are scrum and scrum / XP. Company culture
is seen as the biggest barrier to agile
adoption. According to the latest Version
One agile report, agile is helping enterprises
around the world succeed.16
Mobile first
Mobile first requires a new approach to
planning, customer design and development,
which puts handheld devices at the forefront
of both strategy and implementation. Mobile
introduces new modes of interaction such
as touch and gestures. Design for mobile is
focused on simplification, which will easily
transition into other channels. Worldwide,
there are five times as many smartphones
as there are desktops, 80% of internet
users own a smartphone spending 60%
of their time using it to access the web.17
Organisations should consider its long-term
stability, especially in light of the potential of
augmented reality, or some other type of user
interface, which may emerge.
Delivery methods
16
VersionOne. (2016). VersionOne Releases 10th Annual State of Agile Report.
[online] Available at: https://www.versionone.com/about/press-releases/
versionone-releases-10th-annual-state-of-agile-report/
17
Smartinsights – (2016) Mobile Marketing Statistics [online] Available : http://
www.smartinsights.com/mobile-marketing/mobile-marketing-analytics/
mobile-marketing-statistics/

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MVP
Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a
development technique in which a new
product or solution is developed with
sufficient features to satisfy early adopters.
The final, complete set of features is only
designed and developed after considering
feedback from the initial users and going
through numerous iterations. The challenge
is that it assumes that early adopters can see
the value in the vision or promise of what it
will become, and provide the feedback to help
complete that vision.
Adoption
Not everyone will adopt a disruptive or
innovative idea, despite the obvious benefits.
Everett Rogers identified five personas for
innovation adoption.18
To ensure a business
benefits from innovation, they will need
to develop a specific plan to help educate
and market the solution to users. This will
accelerate adoption. Many businesses fail
to take this into account and drastically
overestimate the value that new technology
will deliver in the short term, without setting
aside additional project budget to promote
new solutions and ensure successful
adoption.
18
E.Rogers (2003) Diffusion of innovation

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Identity verification
Buyer not present ID verification is the single
biggest obstacle to developing a great digital
onboarding experience whilst preventing
fraud.
As 35% of customers' dropout of digital
onboarding processes due to the inability to
confirm their ID, moving from legacy systems
to using a real-time tools will increase
the likelihood of being able to overcome
this challenge. Once established, you can
enhance the customer experience through
pre-population, pre-qualification and digital
signatures. Plug-and-play platforms enable
organisations to combine all the ID and
fraud checks via a flexible API. This allows a
seamless workflow that retains the customer
in the digital journey whilst utilising multiple
sources to verify ID and complete fraud
checks.19
Mobile capture
Image capture has a success rate of 60%-
80%. This exposes some opportunities for
improvement and in doing so will dramatically
improve conversion.
Taking a photo of ID such as a driving licence
or passport can reduce or eliminate steps
in an application, but this must be done with
accuracy to eliminate unnecessary risk.
Results also show a reduced dropout due to
ID being uploaded early in the process.
Identity is the key to delivering digital solutions
19
Experian. Garriock (2015) The Account opening battleground [online] Available
here: https://www.finextra.com/blogs/fullblog.aspx?blogid=10640

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Facial recognition
Facial recognition technology enables
organisations to verify the individual against
their ID. This technology is continually
improving and native apps controlling the
device camera provide greater success rates.
Best-in-class rates sit around 75% at scale at
present, with some systems delivering below
20% success rates. This highlights some
major differences in the performance of the
algorithms driving the technology.
Voice biometrics
Voice biometrics use the customer’s unique
voiceprint for authentication. It can be passive
where the users can say anything, or it can
be active where they are asked to recite
a passphrase. Highly reliable it has a 90%
success rate.
With the expansion of voice-driven user
interface technology on smart phones and
devices, voice biometric authentication, may
become significant in supporting onboarding
journeys.

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NFC
Near Field Communication (NFC) is being
more widely adopted for contactless
payments and digital wallet technologies, and
was expected to grow by 59% through 2016. It
is the technology behind e-passport reading
at airport self-service border controls. For
customers with an open NFC chip on their
Smartphone, it provides the ability to upload
information by simply tapping it on their
phone.20
Fingerprint
Smartphone manufacturers have developed
fingerprint technology to secure their device
and improve convenience and experience.
Average response times vary by device from
0.834 seconds to 1.562 seconds to unlock.
The functionality of fingerprint technology
is part of the phone operating system. This
capability could be integrated into onboarding
technology to confirm identity and possibly
pre-fill form data on a device too.
20
Futuremarketinsights.com. (2016). Mobile Payment Transaction Market to
Reach US$ 768 Bn in 2016; Africa and Asia Pacific to Remain at the Forefront
of Global Demand. [online] Available at: http://www.futuremarketinsights.com/
press-release/mobile-payment-transaction-market

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Device identity
Device identity intelligence can increase
fraud detection by 45% over other systems.
It provides verification of the digital device
being used to complete the onboarding
process. This alleviates customer friction and
increases conversion, without the need for
cookies.
It can also see beyond claimed credentials
and IP on the device to support the
verification process.
Identity management
Customer-centric identity management
services enable the user to register for
the service and complete additional levels
of verification whilst establishing logon
credentials. Once successfully registered
with the service, the customer can use their
account to assert their identity when taking
services from providers who have enrolled
in the programme. The customer has one
set of sign on credentials that increases the
assurance of identity, enables transactions
that are more successful and has fewer
errors, leading to a better experience. In
addition, the customer has fewer logons and
passwords meaning they are less likely to
abandon the process.

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Experience design

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Why you need a customer experience design methodology
A 10% improvement in a company’s customer experience score can translate into more than a
$1 billion in revenue, according to Forrester. It can also improve key metrics like NPS and willingness
to repurchase by 15%.
Every time a customer touches a company, they are
measuring the brand promise, and the brand is either
enhanced or diminished. As mobile technology redefines
the frequency and mode that customers interact with
organisations, delivering the right customer experience,
every time, will become a critical element to every step of
every process.
Organisations tend to manage channels independently,
forming silo's. Customers become frustrated by this, as
well as by poor and inconsistent experiences.
Social platforms amplify poor experiences, as customers
highlight corporate inadequacies. Creating immersive
experiences for customers, which exceed their
expectations and engage them emotionally, will support
their involvement and engagement in the experience.
This can be done through technology to capture, create,
share and access their information, when and where they
want, and through the channel of their choice. Businesses
are taking this seriously, and indeed, 50% of product
investment will be redirected to customer experience
over the next 12-18 month.
Business should consider:
Getting this right will provide organisations the
opportunity to deepen the relationship and therefore
grow mutual opportunities; getting it wrong could mean a
challenge to remain relevant.
The customer should come first, over business profit and
growth. When customer needs are not met, businesses
will be overtaken by disruptors and innovators. A
customer relationship is built up from a series of
experiences. A continued set of positive experiences
results in a higher share of wallet and lifetime value. A
continued stream of sub-par experiences may dissipate
customer goodwill, which can limit share of wallet or lead
to customer attrition. Just a 2% increase in customer
retention has the same impact as decreasing costs by
10%. Improving negative experiences will have a positive
impact on the relationship and help to realise value.
Relationship
The overall
relationship is the
association with the
customer. This is the
aggregation of all
interactions with the
customer and the
use of the product/
service, all set in a
competitive context.
Experience
The customer
experience is an
interaction that fulfils
a specific customer
need. These may
cover many touch
points. A bad set
of experiences
at a single point
can destroy the
relationship.
Event
An event is a high
level set of processes
that a customer goes
through to satisfy a
need.
Step
The step is an
individual act which
compromise a
process.

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See the world as customers do
The relationship sits in a social and industry context; it is more than the sum of all channel
experiences. Other factors, both under the organisation’s control and outside of it, affect the
customer’s perception of their experience. If all experiences are great but competitors are doing
better, then dissonance occurs. Customers experience an organisation’s services as a whole;
they do not see marketing and customer service as different. They are made up of interconnected
touch points.
This outside in view starts with ‘how can we create value
for our customers?’ It asks: ‘what problems do customers
need solving?’ Then: ‘how best can we engage with that
problem?’ It is data, not just capital, that will define an
organisation’s success. This more integrated approach
starts with keeping in mind the customer’s needs.
It redefines the role of the business in making a positive
contribution to the customer’s life - to aid in their
prosperity while providing a safe and comfortable
environment to manage their affairs. It involves helping
the customer find the best outcomes in their day-to-
day lives, not just in the context of an organisation’s
own products and services. The organisation becomes
a way to improve customer decision-making, helping
them find discounts and special offers on products or
services. For example, it makes transactions fast and
effortless. Instead of just enabling customers to do stuff,
organisations can help them reach the decisions on what
to buy, when and where. In this way, they can become
trusted and indispensable to many of the everyday
activities of today’s customers.
Customer experience has emerged as a buzzword
across businesses in recent years. Operational and
frontline departments have been renamed as ‘customer
experience’. Where it appears to be working best is in the
true spirit of customer experience, whereby the focus
is on the end-to-end journey. This looks at individual
transactions but also seeks to understand the broader
reasons for the interactions, address root causes,
and create feedback loops to continuously improve
interactions, upstream and downstream.
A mature, well-defined customer experience model
will play a critical role in delivering change. Whilst the
customer experience team should not directly manage
each activity, it must be more than an advisory function.
Its key role is guiding, facilitating and evaluating the
transformational work of thousands of colleagues. To
facilitate this, large organisations will need to place a
different emphasis on their customer experience teams,
giving them the mission and mandate to organise new
ways of working. For most, this will mean changes to their
operating models, governance and ultimately who sits
on the executive team. This requires a firm commitment
from the top for those businesses outside of the top table,
or those seeking to solidify their position. Incremental
change will not be enough.
Building new capabilities and defining a clear view of
customer experience best practice will create a financial
and social benefit. By embracing this challenge, the
leaders of tomorrow will not only unlock a generation of
accelerated growth for their organisation, but also define
a better tomorrow for their industry.

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What businesses should consider:
Business economics
• What are the revenue and cost effects of
each experience?
• How can they be actively managed to enhance
overall profitability and long-term relationship?
Customer experience
• How does the customer experience the brand
promise, what is the touch point style, ease of
use, functionality, tone of voice and information
architecture?
• Are channel experiences consistent?
Customer knowledge
• Do we have the most appropriate data available at
the right touch point to meet the customer need,
and company objectives?
• How can data be used to improve customer
convenience, relevance and reward loyalty?
Process engineering
• Are processes efficient and effective?
• Are there opportunities to remove manual steps
and reduce delays?
• Can the technology support be improved or
cost removed?

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Mapping the customer journey
A customer journey map tells the story of the customer’s experience - from the initial touch point
with your organisation through to the process of engagement and into a long-term relationship. It
may focus on a particular part of the journey or give an overview of the entire experience.
A customer journey map identifies key interactions that
the customer has with an organisation. It talks about the
user’s feelings, motivations and questions for each step of
the interaction. Not every experience has to delight, some
are low value, but are still essential experiences that need
to be effective and efficient. The customer journey map
can take many forms but typically appears as some form
of infographic - see diagram on page 40. Whatever its
design, its purpose is to learn more about the customer,
where the pain points within an organisation’s processes
are, and what the opportunities to improve the experience
are. These may include:
• Gaps between devices – when users move
between devices
• Gaps between departments – which cause frustration
• Gaps between channels – moving from social media
to web, for example
• Understanding points of dropout in the journey
When overlaid with available data the insight can be
incredibly powerful in identifying key areas for focus
to deliver early benefits. Although data can build a
compelling case, it does not tell the full story by itself. For
that organisations need anecdotal user feedback of their
experience, alongside engagement from frontline teams
who interact with customers every day. Organisations
must define, design and deliver a consistent differentiated
experience at every customer touch point that ultimately
delights the customer.
Research from McKinsey showed that
increasing the satisfaction throughout the
customer journey by 20%, can lift revenue
by 15% and lower the cost to serve by as
much as 20%.

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Monthly fee information
Comparison best options selected
Arrive on Brand X offer landing page
Pre-application documents and information
Proceed to online application
Example customer journey:
Brand X mobile smartphone onboarding
The customer is looking for a new mobile and wants to apply via a digital channel
Type of phone identified
Comparison site selected
Google search 'mobile phone'
Ongoing relationship
Payment of first bill
Log onto digital account
Monthly bill received
Using new phone functionality
Befo
re

After
•
•
•
•
•
•••
•
•
•
•
•
>
>
>
>>
>
>
>

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SIM transfer information / additional SIMs
Job and bank details entered
Live help chat
Enter personal information, name, DOB etc
More pre-application information
Application decision
Legal requirements
More legal requirements
Telephone number and phone confirmed
Close application down
Postal receipt of phone and information within 3 days
SIM card activation process
Number transfer complete

During

•
•
•
•
•
•••
•
•
•
•
•
How can this be a
positive experience?
Make or break moment
- what can we do to delight customer?
Where do we need data to
help deliver the experience
>
>
>
>>
>
>
>

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Building great solutions, websites and applications to
provide excellent customer experience requires planning
before investing in the development of technology.
Rapid prototyping of concepts and ideas, and testing with
customers and staff, can validate your designs early and
allow changes to be made at conceptual stages. It can
also provide a meaningful feedback from the end users.
Prototypes are also being used to eliminate paper work
in projects, by allowing all stakeholders (including
executive boards) to agree on what delivery teams
are being asked to develop and providing high fidelity
interactive prototypes, instead of lengthy documents and
functional specifications, which are open to interpretation.
When everyone is on the same page, organisations can
confidently deliver the solution.
60% of companies perceive customer
experience to be the top source of
differentiation over the next 3 years.21
Finding value
If realising value for customers is a core thread in
business transformation, it needs to be connected
to the business strategy. Current approaches tend
to be connected to user interface design and not
strategic business value.
The problem is too big
Not every step of every interaction can be analysed.
Organisations often do not know where to focus
or how to start. It is uneconomical to be leading in
every experience therefore, organisations need to
decide where to differentiate. Customers get used to
certain ‘standard’ industry-wide experiences, and in
turn, they value certain ‘standard’ experiences.
Failure of CRM to deliver
Solutions tend to focus on process improvement
and integrating data. Over simplification, means
that programs focus on hard selling techniques
and technology because these are tangible and
deliverable. This approach misses the softer nature
of service delivery.
Cultural barriers
All staff (including consultants) assumes they know
what customers want. Executives fear that customer
centricity means higher programme costs and
failure to realise the overarching benefits. Customer
research is unconnected and fails to feed into
improvement programmes.
21
Anon, (2016). [online] Available at: http://www.clarabridge.com/wp-content/
uploads/2016/04/2016-1321_Top14CXstats.pdf

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Employee and customer co-creation
Once a company has identified its priority journeys and gained an understanding of the problems
within them, leaders must refrain from the temptation to helicopter in and dictate remedies. They
should refrain from any solutions (including ones from outside experts) that do not give employees
and customers a major role in shaping the outcome.
Even if a solution appears obvious from the outside, the
root causes of poor customer experience always stem
from inside the organisation, often from cross-functional
disconnects. It is only by getting cross-functional teams
together to identify problems for themselves and
design solutions as a team (which can be validated with
customers), that companies can hope to create solutions
that work.
Analysing journeys and redesigning service processes
can only get a businesses so far. Implementing the
changes across a company is hugely important and
extremely challenging - execution risk being the most
significant area of challenge across businesses.
However, delivering at scale on customer journeys
requires two key changes:
1. Changing the organisation and its processes to
deliver excellent journeys
2. Adjusting metrics and incentives to support journeys,
not just touch points
Organisationally adopting a journey-centric approach
empowers firms to move from siloed functions and
top-down innovation to cross-functional processes, and
enables bottom up innovation.
To make this happen, organisations tend to establish a
new central change leadership function, with an executive
level head to steer the design and implementation.
This is to ensure that the organisation can break away
from functional biases, which have historically blocked
progress, and embed new ways of working. These roles
tend not to be permanent; success ultimately involves
changing the organisation’s culture so much that the roles
are no longer needed, but they are critical in the early
years.
Optimising an individual journey is tactical; shifting
organisational processes, culture and mind-sets to a
journey orientation is strategic and transformational.
Journey-based transformations are in no way easy to
deliver and may take years to perfect. The rewards,
however, will be higher customer and staff satisfaction,
increased revenue and lower costs.
Delivering this type and level of change successfully
engages the organisation at all levels, generating
excitement, innovation and a continuous focus on
improving the business to best serve the customer. It
creates a culture that is hard to develop in other ways
and places organisations that deliver in a category of one,
providing a true competitive advantage.

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Target architecture
Service orientated architecture (SOA) is a
technology architectural approach that supports
service orientation. Service orientation is a way
of thinking about developing processes by using
self-contained services or APIs, which are a
logical representation of a repeatable business
activity that has a specific outcome. Examples
of this include areas such as identity checks,
credit checks, provision of marketing data and
the consolidation of net promoter scores (NPS).
Each service is built as a discrete piece of code,
making it possible to reuse the code in different
ways throughout the business.
This approach can be executed in an organisation’s own
infrastructure, either in the cloud or via a third party
provider’s orchestration platform. The approach also
supports the iterative nature of agile where delivery
is quick and then adapts. You can build incrementally
upon software, which is working, and make it better at
each stage, rather than trying to deliver revolution via a
waterfall delivery method.
It also supports sandbox test and learn activities and,
when built properly, can provide a path to production for
technology teams.

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API API API API API API API API API API API API
Other third party Experian API services Future services TBD Own API services
Existing systemsOrchestration / Context / Personalisation layerAuthentication layer
CRM Products Analytics Core systems
Save and return
Customer
journey
1 4
8
12
Example customer journey
2 3
7 6 5
9 10 11

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Instructions / T&Cs
Instructions to complete
process and T&C’s
including customer
agreement to pre-populate
data.
Photo ID scan
Customer takes photo of
ID and completes facial
recognition alongside
NFC chip validation when
available.
Confirm data & prepopulate
ID and data pre-population
into application, core
details presented to
customer to validate before
proceeding.
Confirmation and details
Credit check completed,
confirming offer. Customer
provided account details
including PAN and
CCV numbers where
appropriate.
Product offer selection
Customer makes their
decision to purchase
and selects product and
options from indicative
offer.
Prequalification offer
Pre-qualified product
offer made for all suitable
products including credit
limits available.
Balance transfers
Option to upload cards
for balance transfers
/ switching now, via
contactless NFC or image
capture or complete later
via upload link.
Building a best in class customer experience
Card Received
Customer receives card
quickly and ready to use or
deployed straight to their
Apple Pay / Android Pay
digital wallet.
Target onboarding journey example for a bank account
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8

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Design unhappy paths to retain all customers in the journey
A core focus in shaping a design approach is in understanding how data, decisioning, context and
customer insight can drive journey optimisation. This approach also helps to develop digital solutions,
which support and minimise any manual interventions by leveraging additional checks when
customers fail the initial checks. This can help to retain the customer in the digital journey, minimise
friction whilst delivering a secure, fast, simple and compliant experience.
Customer onboarding journey
journey
start
Step
/
Decision
point
Com
pletion
Alternativechecks
Alternativechecks
Alternativechecks
Alternativechecks
Alternativechecks
Save & return
journey
Channel
specific
requirements
Channel
specific
requirements
Channel
specific
requirements
Step
/
Decision
point
Step
/
Decision
point
Step
/
Decision
point
Step
/
Decision
point
Step
/
Decision
point
Step
/
Decision
point

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Device Recognition
This verifies the security of the
device the customer is using to
on-board, via device ID software.
It also provides extra protection
for customers without additional
intrusive security processes, allowing
them to begin the onboarding journey
with simple instructions.
Existing customers can login even
if they are not registered for digital
channels and enjoy a personalised
experience with fewer hurdles.
Onboarding Instructions
Simple onboarding instructions
for new customers, explaining that
they will be identified first, which
allows their data to be pre-filled
into the application form alongside
additional insight from their data
that can enable a truly personalised
experience.
Select ID
Customers select either a driving
licence or passport as identification
documentation. If the customer
has neither, or chooses not to
upload, then more manual input of
information will be required, rather
than optical character recognition
(OCR) pre-filling data fields. Using
this technology as a stepping stone to
re-engage dropouts from onboarding
can recover up to 35% of customers.
Prototyping a new customer journey
Prototyping has always been an integral step in design and engineering. In recent years, it has
become more commonplace in digital solution design and development. Over the next few pages
is a basic onboarding prototype. This form of prototype is used to start the conversation across the
organisation and begin customer engagement building it out further through multiple iterations.
1 2 3

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Mobile data capture
Simple instructions are available for
capturing images of a customer’s ID
document. Capturing a good quality
image is important for the technology
to validate and read the documents.
Customers are much less likely to
drop out of the journey once they
have provided their ID. Performance
of this technology varies, depending
on whether it is being run via a
native app or via a browser. A native
app controls the device’s camera to
ensure it meets the required image
quality, but requires app installation,
which is suboptimal. The browser-
based solution requires the user to
take control of the camera and can
result in lower success rates with
images.
NFC Passport
If the user selects their passport,
has an e-passport, and near field
communication (NFC) enabled
phone (the technology that powers
contactless), they would simply tap
the passport to the device and it will
read the embedded data, including
the passport photo.
Facial Recognition
Higher value products may require
higher levels of ID validation. Facial
recognition technology can provide
this by matching the user’s image.
This validates the user is real
against the image captured on the ID
document.
4 5 6
To experience visit:
www.experian.co.uk/digitaljourneydemo

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Details Confirmation
This replays the captured information
back to the user to validate or make
any necessary amends. All captured
data is then further validated against
various identity, fraud, Know Your
Customer (KYC), or Know Your
Business (KYB), and Anti Money
Laundering (AML) data sources.
Knowledge Based
Authentication (KBA)
Should the user have an insufficient
score to pass the ID check from the
steps so far, they could be asked
some personalised questions based
on credit bureau information, to
further validate their identity and
therefore retain them in the journey.
Prequalification
Having confirmed the user, they can
be provided with a personalised
product or service. For example,
presenting available banking
products, which gives a greater
confidence to proceed. Our
experience suggests that many
customers are savvy enough to try to
avoid unnecessary credit footprints
and may exit digital journeys
prematurely to avoid such checks.
This approach provides an indicative
view without the need for a credit
check.
7 8 9

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Personalised Product
Selection
Customers do not like asking for
something and then being told no.
Prequalification can ensure they
have a great experience and are still
able to choose products and features
which they are eligible for.
Digital Fulfilment
When products are purchased
digitally, there is a desire to receive
them immediately. In this example,
a bank could download a bankcard
into the user’s digital wallet on their
phone, allowing them to transact
straight away.
Activation
It is important for both the business
and customer, to activate the product
immediately and get the customer
using the solution, which will help
drive value. Technology can be used
to support this through introductory
videos and other product specific
options.
10 11 12

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Existing Customer Login
Having a challenging authentication
process can limit the adoption of
digital channels. Customers demand
something easy with ideally no
passwords to remember and no
second factor authentication. Using
device ID and some of the capabilities
already outlined can enable a
seamless login and registration
processes.
Facial Recognition Login
Registered customers signing in on
a known device can quickly login
using facial recognition, taking them
straight to the personalised product
page. This presents opportunities for
cross selling.
Digital registration
Using their bankcard and ID
document with facial verification, a
customer can quickly register to use
the organisation’s digital services
and receive a relevant personalised
product offer.
1 2 3
The existing customer journey

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Personalised cross sale
To maximise cross sales, it is helpful
to let customers know what products
they are eligible for. That may be a
better phone, a better car, a better TV
viewing package or a credit card with
a higher credit limit.
4

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Customer comments from journey testing
Experian has built and tested with customers a number
of our onboarding journeys for banking, telecoms and
automotive industries to help us refine the experience.
"I liked that you were told upfront which
services you would be approved for and
where the credit check would happen"
"So much easier than keying all your
information"
"Taking a photo is so much quicker and
easier"
"I’m only interested in the benefits I
receive so unless the new bank offers
better (or matching) interest rates, online
security, joining bonus etc, I won’t be
opening the new account"
"Very disappointing that the apple devices
don’t yet have the NFC capability"
"It was way better than going to a bank
and waiting for hours, then days to get
started"
"The pre-approval of products would ease
me to progress through the process, this
also gives a good insight on what else
I would be able to have, which would
strengthen my decision to move forward"
"The alternative of sending documents
through the post or visiting a branch make
this more appealing"
"I found it really good, I liked the simplicity"
"Its different to any type of account
opening I’ve ever done, it felt quite
seamless"
"The facial recognition made the
process feel more secure and made me
more comfortable about uploading my
information to open a bank account"

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Delivery execution

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Evolution or revolution?
Once the initial design process is complete and ready to pass over the signed off requirements /
prototype to the change team, there are some decisions to make which will have a significant impact
on whether the solution will be built to scope, budget, plan and deliver the anticipated business case.
Whilst legacy thinking will go straight to how to build this internally, there may be another way:
Quick wins
Are there areas that clearly need to be fixed in the current
processes, which would add value quickly to the existing
process? Many onboarding processes fail due to identity
verification issues, so could your organisation deploy part
of the strategic solution, which would materially improve
existing systems whilst building the new platform? Could
a new API to identity services deliver a better customer
outcome?
Stepping-stones
Traditional project delivery has high costs through a
prolonged development and testing period, with little
or no benefits delivered until the project completes.
By planning how the project will provide incremental
improvements throughout the development period,
organisations can accelerate the benefits whilst
improving the customer experience incrementally.
Renovation
Sometimes the past can constrain the future and other
times it can enable it. Be cautious when bringing forward
legacy solutions into new process development. Why
do they need to be used in this model? Is there another,
better way to achieve this outcome, either through
process, data or technology? Every legacy solution must
be challenged as to whether it should be brought into
the new solution. Organisations may be able to ‘renovate’
existing platforms to deliver the future.
Buy off the shelf
Why build something when you can buy it? With over 50%
of IT, spend likely to be with third parties by 2020, this is
likely to become a more accepted practice in the future.
Many off-the-shelf solutions are discounted because they
are perceived to only deliver 80% of the requirements.
Companies then embark on internal builds only to cut
scope due to project overruns and budget cuts delivering
less than 80% of the original requirements. It would
therefore be quicker to deploy an off-the-shelf solution
and possibly iterate the additional 20% in production.22
Outsource build
Why distract internal resources in delivering a new
platform when it could be outsourced to a specialist
systems integrator with a defined scope and attributed
cost penalties for late delivery? If an organisation is sure
of its requirements then this could present a better option
for delivery. Change control should sit with the finance
team who can assess the real value of distractions
entering a project delivery cycle.
22
Harvard Business Review. (2016). Change Management Needs to Change.
[online] Available at: https://hbr.org/2013/04/change-management-needs-to-cha
24
Bossidy, L., Charan, R. and Burck, C. (2002). Execution. 1st ed. New York: Crown
Business.

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Outsource service
Organisations that can quickly adapt to radical new
delivery models will do well. Outsourcing large parts of
the value chain can save money in areas where others
can create scale and reduce unit cost. Could the provision
of the service be outsourced to a third party, as either
an administrator or blackbox service provider? A great
onboarding process is unlikely to be a differentiator
for organisations; customers aren’t touching it on a
regular basis. It may be an obstacle to growth but does
it need to be a bespoke build for your customers – or,
would a standardised experience work. An industry
standard for onboarding may be more acceptable to
customers because they know what to expect, allowing
organisational resources to focus on delivering great
products and services that differentiate them in a
crowded market.
Acquire
Some larger organisations will spend significant sums
to build new onboarding services when they could have
bought a company that already has great onboarding
technology. For the same cost of building a platform,
organisations get the technology they were going to build
and a business with an existing revenue stream.
Build MVP and iterate
Minimum Viable Product (MVP) means different things
to different people so agreeing what that means before
beginning down this track is important. Some will view an
MVP as a new product, which allows the team to collect
the maximum amount of validated learning from the
customer, with the minimum of effort. Arguably, this can
be achieved with a clickable prototype. An MVP needs
to deliver customer value and provide value back to the
organisation, so becomes the smallest build that delivers
against these criteria. The objective is to build upon this
capability to deliver the best possible solution within
the time and budget constraints, as informed by user
feedback.
Cloud toolkit
The Cloud toolkit is an emerging area at present. Third
party providers are creating cloud-based environments
for companies to leverage prebuilt APIs, other partner
APIs and their own in a secure agile toolkit. The
combination of capabilities can kick-start innovation
in their sandbox environments and provide a path to
production, which radically improves both time to market
and return on investment.
Internal bespoke build
Depending on perspective, this is either the highest risk
or lowest risk approach to delivering a new onboarding
system. It could incorporate elements from all of the
approaches detailed above but allows the business to
be in total control. It is based on internal knowledge and
experience of delivering for their customers.

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Innovation is non-existent until implemented well
Organisations face many challenges in today’s volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous market
place. To respond to these challenges, leaders must take strategies and innovations and turn them
into reality. Unfortunately, too many companies struggle to bridge the gap between strategy and
results. Various studies highlight that 70% of change initiatives fail to deliver the initial objectives.
They create realistic, logical plans but are unable to execute them properly. Many do not realise what
is required to convert their vision into specific tasks; never setting milestones for progress and failing
to create contingency plans should the unexpected happen.23
Across organisations, there is a need to recognise
that execution is the most important collective activity
they can engage in. Much time is spent on developing
management techniques, strategic thinking and,
more recently, on innovation and disruptive thinking
capabilities. However, if leaders cannot take an idea and
deliver it, the other areas become meaningless. Without
execution, there is no innovation.24
Leaders who want to build a culture, which supports
delivery, must focus on changing beliefs within their
company that influence specific behaviours, especially as
behaviours are what ultimately deliver results. Execution
must be embedded in the reward systems and in the
expected behaviours, which everyone practices.
In organisations that fail to deliver change, the leaders are
usually out of touch with day-to-day realities. The majority
of information that reaches them has been filtered by
direct reports to present their own agenda or perception.
There also tends to be an unwarranted optimism around
progress, versus embracing the realism, which can reveal
mistakes made. What is required is focus on a small
number of priorities to get the best from the resources
available, with regular follow up from leadership on
progress, to help break down any barriers to achieving
the desired goals. It is also important to reward people
who produce results and coach the whole team to
understand the core elements and behaviours of delivery.
This will start to change your culture from the inside out.
Culture consists of concepts, values, and assumptions
around the organisation that guide behaviour and are
widely shared by the team. Behaviours are beliefs turned
into actions, which delivers the results. To change culture,
organisations must change beliefs. To deliver the future
strategy, start by examining whether your organisation’s
beliefs are supporting delivery execution. This, at a basic
level, requires the right people in the right job to create
competitive advantage, and having the courage to move
people out quickly who are not. Be prepared to make
tough decisions. To deliver strategic milestones will
require re-evaluation of available resources on a regular
basis, as well as building a pipeline of available talent to
support endeavours.
Be careful with your time. Ensure actions and
expectations are clear from every conversation and
meeting: who will do what, and when? Always follow
through, asking incisive questions in every interaction.
Complexity is the enemy of execution.
70%
of change initiatives
fail to deliver initial goals23
Forbes.com. (2016). Forbes Welcome. [online] Available at: http://www.
forbes.com/sites/gilpress/2015/11/10/transform-or-die-idcs-top-technology-
predictions-for-2016/#46ed6dd37cec

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High level business case
Improve customer experience Paperless savings Millennial engagement via mobile
onboarding
Improve processing time Improved audit trail for path to purchase Increased distribution - omni channel
Improve sales conversation Improved staff productivity in-store API reuse in other processes
Reduce manual drop out Improved cross-sale Reduced complaints
Reduce cost - manual work arounds Platform flexibility - continuous
improvement
Reduce postal costs - mailing
Understanding business value levers
POSITIVEEXPERIENCE=CUSTOMERVALUE
FREECASHFLOW=SHAREHOLDERVALUE
Customer
Priorities
Customer
Loyalty Levers
Company
Operation Levers
Company
Value Levers
ChangeInitiative:DigitalOnboarding
VALUE DIAGRAM: Digital Onboarding Journey
Increase
control
Save time
Increase
convenience
Brand knows
me, doesn’t
waste my time
form filling
interaction
time
Make things
easy for me
simplify
Get what I
want, when I
want it
omni-channel
Improve
service and
increase NPS
average time
to serve
Standardised
IT model
reduce time to
market
Innovator
customers
switching to
disruptive
brands
who meets
customers
needs
Increase
revenue
Reduce
costs
Reduce costs
agility

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Welcomeand
importantinfo
Personaldetails
Addressdetails
VerifyCustomer
Earlydecision
Documentcheck
Photocheck
Finalauthenticatecheck
Bankdetail
capture
Productselection
Customeroptions
Decisionin
principleor
earlydecline
Decisionin
principleor
earlydecline
Anti
impersonation
check
Pre
qualification
Existingcustomer
information
Documentcheck
Address
format
validation
Existing
Customer
information
Bureau data
services
(e.g credit risk,
assessment,
affordability)
FraudandAML
Identity
authentication
Document
checks
Knowledgebased
authentication
Bankvalidation
Creditreference
footprint
Casemanagement
andMI
Document
optical
character
recognition
SERVICE
Delivering an onboarding journey
Below is an illustration of how an API based onboarding journey could be architected across all
channels based upon the earlier prototype design.
Decision
SERVICE SERVICE SERVICE SERVICE SERVICE SERVICE SERVICE
Decision Decision
END
Decision
update
SERVICE
ACCOUNT OPEN
END
Customer journey: Channel layer
Customer journey: Orchestration layer
Decisioning: Orchestration layer
Data and services

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Continuous improvement

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Kaizen
Kaizen, or continuous improvement, is about constantly introducing small incremental changes
in a business or process, to improve quality and/or efficiency. Many companies have adopted or
embraced ‘lean’ methodologies over the years on the premise that employees are best placed to see
improvement opportunities because they see the processes in action. Differentiate through ideas,
vision and leadership to proactively stay ahead of the market.
It is our experience that changing market conditions, customer expectations and new technologies, necessitate the on-
going enhancement of onboarding solutions. Upon launch of the services, we encourage analysis of the sales funnel, to
identify bottlenecks and pain points and to optimise both performance and customer experience. Committing budget
and resources to ongoing upgrades, maintains the effectiveness and relevance of the implemented solution.
The aim is to deliver multi-layered inclusive strategies that offer customers the choice of which method best suits
them for the provision of ID and other data required to meet onboarding criteria. Whilst at the same time meeting all
regulatory requirements including company policy within risk appetite.
In digital, the Kaizen model has given rise in recent years to Digital Journey Managers across many industries. They
own the end-to-end customer journey testing and analyse every step, making data driven decisions to optimise every
journey. They work with colleagues across the business and engage with customers to better understand the points of
struggle in the journey and how to resolve them.
Digital Journey Managers the analogy has been made that they are like a music DJ, connected to the audience they
are playing to, gauging what they need or want. They will experiment with new content and see if it is affecting as
anticipated. If it does not, they will change it almost instantly. They are cognitive that audiences change depending
on when and where they come from and their context. Most importantly, they have the tools and skills to do it all
themselves, owning each moment.
Customer design
Lean UX
Agile
Experiment
Explore
Hypothesis
Brain storm
concepts
Prioritise
Research
and
observe
Clear
need
New ideas
Feedback
Buildit
Sales funnel optimisation
Journey experience
RESOLVEPAIN POINT

Digital onboarding

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